CURATOR
PROF DR. HERWIG GURATZCH HEADED THE WILHELM BUSCH MUSEUM IN HANOVER, THEN THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS IN LEIPZIG (1978-1993). HE WAS THE FORMER CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF GOETHE INSTITUT AND IS CURRENTLY THE PRINCIPAL DIRECTOR OF THE FOUNDATION OF SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN STATE MUSEUMS SCHLOSS GOTTORF, HAMBURG

NOTES ON SONIA MEHRA CHAWLA'S WORK

In her essay 'Seeing the Tree', for the comprehensive publication, Kirsten Nordahl writes:

'In the title of her work Scapelands, Sonia Mehra Chawla deliberately inverts the art historical genre designation of the landscape. She dives into the landscape and observes it from the inside out. In the process, the human being and the human relationship to nature, which oscillates between connectedness and alienation, remains a focus in her examination. Of significance in her work are analogies between the external natural world and the inside of the human body, but also how we treat our environment. For years, she has been travelling on a regular basis to various coastal regions of Asia in order to explore mangroves for her art. Mangrove forests form a natural, extremely resilient and adaptable membrane between land and sea, one that may be crucially important to life. Today they are one of the most endangered ecosystems on our planet. Sonia uses the image-producing media of painting, graphic art, photography and film to make the viewer aware of "the fragile balance between life and death"...
(Excerpts from Kirsten Nordahl's essay)

A COMPREHENSIVE PUBLICATION ACCOMPANIES THE EXHIBITION AND INCLUDES TEXTS BY PROF DR. HERWIG GURATZCH AND KIRSTEN NORDAHL